Austin orders review of 2019 Baghuz airstrikes by the U.S. which killed 60 Syrian civilians
The Pentagon has launched a probe into a U.S. airstrike in Syria which killed dozens of civilians, including women and children in 2019, after a report by The New York Times claimed the U.S. military hid civilian casualties.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin has asked for a review of the March 18, 2019, airstrikes that occurred in Al-Baghuz Fawqani, Syria, which resulted in the deaths of more than 60 civilians there. At that time, U.S. and Syrian Democratic Forces lead the operations to defeat ISIS in Syria.
The secretary has tasked Army Gen. Michael X. Garrett, commander of U.S. Army Forces Command, to conduct the review of the investigation and conduct further inquiry. Garrett has been tasked to submit his findings within 90 days to the secretary, said Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby during a briefing.
“The inquiry will include an assessment of the following things: the civilian casualties that resulted from the incident; compliance with the law of war; record-keeping and reporting procedures; whether mitigation measures identified in previous investigations into the incident were in fact implemented effectively; whether accountability measures would be appropriate; and finally whether authorities, procedures or processes should be altered,” Kirby told reporters.
The probe was launched after the New York Times reported that the US military concealed an airstrike in which killed Syrian civilians including women and children in Syria’s Baghuz town during the last days of the battle against ISIS in 2019.
On March 18, 2019, an American F-15E attack jet dropped a 500-pound bomb on the crowd. As survivors attempted to scramble away, the jet “dropped a 2,000 pound bomb, then another, killing most of survivors.”
An analyst at the US military’s Combined Air Operations Center at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar typed on a secure chat system: “We jet dropped on 50 women and children.” The initial assessment of the strike revealed that the death toll was about 70.
“The Baghuz strike was one of the largest civilian casualty incidents of the war against ISIS, but it has never been publicly acknowledged by the US military” the NYT said.
“A legal officer flagged the strike as a possible war crime that required an investigation. But at nearly every step, the military made moves that concealed the catastrophic strike. The death toll was downplayed. Reports were delayed, sanitized and classified. US-led coalition forces bulldozed the blast site. And top leaders were not notified,” the paper reported.
